Tuesday, May 21, 2013

News Round Up

Yahoo! News is running a series of articles showcasing personal stories of people who were ensnared in the student loan trap. A couple have featured attorneys:

Beware the Student Loan Trap by David J. Koslowski

Money Quote: "Some said I was naive. I look back and realize I was outright stupid."


Money Quote: "The problem was the loan is like a mortgage, and I will be paying on it until 2032, when I will be 61 years old."

*****

"Dear Class of '13: You've been scammed" by Brett Arend's (Market Watch/Wall Street Journal)

Money Quote: "You sit here today, $30.000 or $40,000 in debt, as the latest victims of what may well be the biggest conspiracy in U.S. history. It is a conspiracy so big and powerful that Dan Brown won't even touch it. It's a conspiracy so insidious that you will rarely hear its name. Move over, Illuminati. Stand down, Wall Street. Area 51? Pah. It's nothing. The biggest conspiracy of all? The College-Industrial Complex."

*****


"Law Deans Scramble" by Steven Harper (The AmLaw Daily)

The 5 stages of grief, LawDean style.

Money Quote: "The crisis in legal education continues, with the number of people applying to law school declining along with the job prospects for those who graduate. In the face of these trends, some law school deans are still trying to preserve an unsustainable business model. Offering what they apparently regard as innovative ideas, they're making things worse."

*****


LOL!

Money Quote: "I don't [think] focusing on scores is the way to go," [Sarah] Zearfoss [admissions dean at the University of Michigan Law School] responds. "It's not fair to the individual. It's not fair to the institution."

*****

Back with some more soon!


15 comments:

  1. Oh hamburgers, these a-holes have been pitching the "substance over LSAT" line for years. An every year, the schollies go to the high LSAT scorers. It's not going to change now that high LSAT scorers are even rarer.

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  2. Speaking of scam deans, Nick Allard of Brooklyn Law School is offering a two-year J.D. program for middle-aged folk and rich foreigners. I will post a more detailed analysis when I have the chance, but it is a sad scam to target desperate middle-aged people that suffered a layoff and long term unemployment from the recession. He sells the J.D. as an opportunity to start a second career! Yet, all of the older law school students from my class did not end up so well... no firm or government agency is lining up to hired older newbie lawyers.

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    1. I finished law school when I was 44 years old. Since that time I have worked for the AG's Office, as a Deputy DA and now as a state ALJ. All since 2004.

      Delete
    2. Well aren't you a special little snowflake, 9:38.

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  3. Great roundup of articles, guys.

    The Arend and Sloan pieces were excellent, and they came from people who know what the hell they are talking about. Look at Sloan's conclusion:

    "I believe student loans are the responsibility of the student who borrowed for them. The student loan debt is certainly problem in today's society, and I am not sure how we deal with it. I would tell students taking out loans to think carefully first. Make sure you are studying something that will lead to a good income."

    In the end, student loans will remain non-dischargeble, since the banks OWN Congre$$ outright. I don't expect the status of student loans to change for at least another 20-30 years. Students should choose wisely, and view law school - or MBA programs or other Master's degrees - as STRICTLY a financial decision. This is not 1940, where kids from wealthy families attended prep schools and then college on their parents' dime, and had the luxury of majoring in Latin or Poetry.

    This is why it is especially shameful for current students who are debt-strapped to encourage others to take the law school plunge.

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    1. ^ I sure HOPE they remain nondischargeable. Nothing quite makes me see red like a spoiled, able-bodied poop photographer in his 20s/30s demanding a big-ass handout from the taxpayers.

      You were rolled. Just get over it, take whatever job you can get, and pay off your loans one month at a time. I promise you you'll be happier in the long run than certain individuals who go on strike, refuse to pay, and feel a bizarre mutated "moral authority" as they watch the amount climb into the stratosphere.

      Delete
    2. The poop is an illustrative tool used to help prevent more people from getting rolled in the first place, thus helping ensure they won't be asking for government handouts.

      Delete
  4. When I attended law school, there was an older fellow who was about 45 years old. He died of Cancer shortly after taking the bar exam. When I went to my 10 year law class reunion, people kept agreeing that nothing is sadder than spending your last 3 years studying bullshit doctrine and then buying the farm.

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  5. Great round up. This blog just keeps getting better.

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  6. Law school is now a horrible idea, even if one could attend for FREE. This is because it absorbs three years of your life and requires at least three years of effort that should be invested in learning another line of work. You may not "borrow" those three years, but it's time you can't get back.... and time you'll need to learn a new trade. Equally bad, a law degree narrows you, effectively making you unemployable to many other employers.

    Why any rational person would want to borrow in the neighborhood of $100k on top of these drawbacks is even more astounding.

    The schools cannot create demand for services... all they can do is create degrees. And they've way beyond flooded the market with them. Game over.

    Rather than entertain the ethically dubious proposition of attracting new customers, law deans should keep busy for the next two years winding up their schools' affairs and putting their businesses to bed.

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  7. One of the guys interviewed - in his early 40s - said he would have to work until his early 60s to pay off his law school debt. It is a lot easier to hold a job at 42 than at 52 or 57. In the legal profession, working until age 62 would be unattainable for most lawyers because of the age-skewed distribution of jobs.

    The guy from St. Johns is lucky to have a job. However, he is very junior. Needs to cross his fingers that the job lasts, because so many lawyer jobs don't.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Being indebted until you're in your 60s? Working for a couple of years for a firm, until you're shoved out to make room a fungible, younger associate? I must have missed that part of "Paper Chase." This is not my beautiful life.

      Delete
  8. What Dean Z means is she needs more dumbasses with low LSAT scores to cross-subsidize the high LSAT scorers' tuition.

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  9. "There aren't enough jobs."

    Can we make this a t-shirt with Professor Campos' face on it like Che Guevera?

    --Jim

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  10. Focusing on LSATs to determine worth of student is "not fair to the individual . . . It's not fair to the institution"?

    Huh. Funny, because eight years ago those couple of LSAT points were the difference between you charging me full freight and a full scholarship. Yes, students do talk about these things and we know who got what.

    What changed? Oh that's right, you started to get desperate after being exposed for the scammers that you are.

    ReplyDelete